TPG and Silver Lake have in the past teamed up for some of the biggest technology buyouts of all time, though any buyout of Dell would likely far surpass their previous deals. Dell’s market capitalization as of Tuesday morning was about $21.4 billion and shares were rallying again, up 2.3% to $12.57 in recent trading.

In 2005 TPG and Silver Lake were in the group of PE shops that purchased SunGard Data Systems Inc. for $11.3 billion, excluding debt SunGard had on its balance sheet before the deal. That counted it as one of the biggest buyouts of the early years of the PE boom, and still ranks as the third biggest tech buyout of all time, according to Dealogic.